2019 New York Book Show

NMSG was cooking on all burners at the Thirty-Third Annual New York Book Show, garnering prepress/composition honors for four cookbooks, in addition to recognition for several books in other categories.

NMSG was awarded a total of seven prizes this year. The Cookbook winners were a first place nod for Solo by Anita Lo; a third place award for River Cafe London by Ruth Rogers, Sian Wyn Owen, Joseph Trivelli, and Rose Gray; and merit awards for Joe Beef by Frédéric Morin, David McMillan, and Meredith Erickson, and Cake by Maira Kalman (in the Gift category).

Additional NMSG award winners were Our Story by Rao Pingru, taking first place in the Adult Graphic Novel category; Beastie Boys Book, by Michael Diamond and Adam Horovitz, third place in the Hardcover Nonfiction category; and Daemon Voices by Philip Pullman, a merit winner in the Hardcover Nonfiction category.

The show, presented by the Book Industry Guild of New York, was held October 10, 2019, at Battery Gardens in New York City. The mission, according to the show’s co-chairs, is “to showcase the finest and most diverse in book design and production.” NMSG’s vice president, Vicky Dawes, and vice president of sales, Lainey Wolfe, attended.

Below are NMSG’s 2019 winning entries

Click on any image to enlarge the spread.

Receiving first place in the Cookbook category is Solo (Knopf), by New York restaurateur and TV cooking competition contestant Anita Lo. Solo presents appetizing one-person meals with a global orientation. The book includes tips for using leftovers, and recipes are easily multiplied for additional servings. The recipes are accented with four-color illustrations by Julia Rothman.

Simple, high-quality Italian-style cooking from an acclaimed restaurant is featured in River Cafe London (Knopf), by Ruth Rogers, Sian Wyn Owen, Joseph Trivelli, and Rose Gray, a third-place winner in the Cookbook category. Memories pulled from the restaurant’s history accompany these recipes, illustrated by drawings, photographs, and individual menus enhanced by artist patrons such as Damien Hirst and Ellsworth Kelly. The bold, colorful design of the book reflects the restaurant’s style.

If you want to make your own soap or cough drops from scratch, Joe Beef: Surviving the Apocalypse (Knopf), by Frédéric Morin, David McMillan, and Meredith Erickson, is the cookbook for you. Or if you prefer Truffes du Vaucluse au Sésame (an upscale variation on mushrooms on toast), this is also the cookbook for you. Offering something for everyone, this merit winner in the Cookbook category includes not just recipes, but history, lore, culture, survivalist advice, and humor, without pretension. The noteworthy endpapers and ingenious gatefold insert were done at NMSG.

A book that lets you have your cake and eat it too, as long as you make it from the recipes inside, is Cake (Penguin), by Maira Kalman with recipes by Barbara Scott-Goodman, a merit winner in the Gift category. There is a cake for every occasion here, highlighted by Kalman’s colorful and imaginative illustrations and memory-filled anecdotes.

Rao Pingru, the 95-year-old author of Our Story: A Memoir of Love and Life in China (Pantheon), has created a unique graphic memoir and tribute to Mao Meitang, his late wife, out of his own memories, words, and images. The story of his marriage is told against the backdrop of change and growth in China from 1922 to 2008 and presented in an intensely creative package.

Receiving third place in the Hardcover Nonfiction category is Beastie Boys Book (Spiegel & Grau), a jam-packed, unconventional memoir by Michael Diamond (Mike D) and Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock), the two surviving Beasties. Short chapters tell their story through anecdotes and their own insights, punctuated with photos, cartoons, lists, and lyrics, and haunted by the absence of the third Beastie Boy, Adam Yauch, who passed away in 2012. The clever endpapers cited by the judges were done at NMSG.

In Daemon Voices (Knopf), a merit winner in the Hardcover Nonfiction category, Philip Pullman collects 30 essays he wrote over two decades, which explicate the art and significance of storytelling. Author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, Pullman provides insight into his influences, such as William Blake and the Brothers Grimm, in these essays.